Napoleon Bonaparte (French: Napoléon
BonaparteFrench pronunciation: [napoleɔ̃
bɔnɑpaʁt], Italian: Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15
August 1769 – 5 May 1821), was a military and political leader of
France and Emperor of the French as Napoleon
I, whose actions shaped European politics in the early
19th century.

Born in Corsica and
trained as an artillery officer in mainland France, Bonaparte rose
to prominence under the First French
Republic and led successful campaigns against the First and Second Coalitions arrayed
against France. In 1799, he staged a coup d'état
and installed himself as First Consul; five years later the French
Senate proclaimed him Emperor. In the first decade of the
nineteenth century, the French Empire under Napoleon
engaged in a series of conflicts—the Napoleonic Wars—involving every major
European power. After a streak of victories, France secured a
dominant position in continental Europe and Napoleon maintained the
French sphere of influence through the
formation of extensive alliances and the appointment of friends and
family members to rule other European countries as French client states.

Napoleon's campaigns are studied at military academies the world
over. While considered a tyrant by his opponents, he is also
remembered for the establishment of the Napoleonic code, which laid the
administrative and judicial foundations for much of Western
Europe.

Origins
and education

Napoleon Bonaparte was born the second of eight children, in Casa Buonaparte
in the town of Ajaccio,
Corsica, on 15 August 1769, one year after the island was
transferred to France by the Republic of Genoa.[1] He was
initially named Napoleone di Buonaparte, acquiring his
first name from an uncle who had been killed fighting the
French,[2] but
later adopted the more French-sounding Napoléon
Bonaparte.[note
1]

Napoleon's noble, moderately affluent background and family
connections afforded him greater opportunities to study than were
available to a typical Corsican of the time.[7] In
January 1779, Napoleon was enrolled at a religious school in Autun, mainland France, to learn
French, and in May he was admitted to a military academy at Brienne-le-Château.[8] He
spoke with a marked Corsican accent and never learned to spell
properly.[9]
Napoleon was teased by other students for his accent and applied
himself to study.[10][note 2]
An examiner observed that Napoleon "has always been distinguished
for his application in mathematics. He is fairly well acquainted
with history and geography... This boy would make an excellent
sailor."[12][note 3]
On completion of his studies at Brienne in 1784, Napoleon was
admitted to the elite École Militaire in Paris; this
ended his naval ambition, which had led him to consider an
application to the British Royal Navy.[14]
Instead, he trained to become an artillery officer and, when his father's
death reduced his income, was forced to complete the two-year
course in one year.[10]
He was examined by the famed scientist Pierre-Simon Laplace, whom
Napoleon later appointed to the Senate.[15]

Early
career

Upon graduating in September 1785, Bonaparte was commissioned a second lieutenant in La Fère
artillery regiment.[8][note 4]
He served on garrison duty in Valence, Drôme and Auxonne until after the outbreak of the French
Revolution in 1789, though he took nearly two years of leave in
Corsica and Paris during this period. A fervent Corsican
nationalist, Bonaparte wrote to the Corsican leader Pasquale Paoli in
May 1789: "As the nation was perishing I was born. Thirty thousand
Frenchmen were vomited on to our shores, drowning the throne of
liberty in waves of blood. Such was the odious sight which was the
first to strike me."[17]

He spent the early years of the Revolution in Corsica, fighting
in a complex three-way struggle between royalists, revolutionaries,
and Corsican nationalists. He supported the revolutionary Jacobin faction,
gained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and command over
a battalion of volunteers. After he had exceeded his leave of
absence and led a riot against a French army in Corsica, he was
somehow able to convince military authorities in Paris to promote
him to Captain in July 1792.[18] He
returned to Corsica once again, and came into conflict with Paoli,
who had decided to split with France and sabotage a French assault
on the Sardinian island of La Maddalena, where
Bonaparte was one of the expedition leaders.[19]
Bonaparte and his family had to flee to the French mainland in June
1793 because of the split with Paoli.[20]

Siege of
Toulon

In July 1793, he published a pro-republican pamphlet, Le
Souper de Beaucaire [Supper at Beaucaire], which gained him the
admiration and support of Augustin Robespierre, younger
brother of the Revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre. With the
help of fellow Corsican Antoine Christophe
Saliceti, Bonaparte was appointed artillery commander of the
republican forces at the siege of Toulon. The city had risen
against the republican government and was
occupied by British troops.[21] He
adopted a plan to capture a hill placing that would allow
republican guns to dominate the city's harbour and force the
British ships to evacuate. The assault on the position, during
which Bonaparte was wounded in the thigh, led to the capture of the
city and his promotion to Brigadier General. His actions
brought him to the attention of the Committee of Public Safety
and he was given command of the artillery arm of France's Army
of Italy.[22] He
became engaged to Désirée Clary, whose sister, Julie Clary, married
Bonaparte's elder brother Joseph in 1794. The Clarys were a wealthy
merchant family from Marseille.[23]

13
Vendémiaire

Following the fall of the Robespierres in the July 1794 Thermidorian Reaction, Bonaparte
was put under house
arrest in August 1794 for his association with the
brothers.[note 5]
Although he was released after only ten days, he remained out of
favour.[25] In
April 1795, he was assigned to the Army of the West, which was
engaged in the War in the Vendée—a civil war and
royalist counter-revolution in France's Vendée
region. As an infantry command, it was a demotion from artillery
general, and he pleaded poor health to avoid the posting.[26] He
was moved to the Bureau of Topography of the Committee of Public Safety
and sought, unsuccessfully, to be transferred to Constantinople
(officially renamed Istanbul on 28 March 1930) in order to offer
his services to the Sultan.[27]
During this period he wrote a romantic novella, Clisson et
Eugénie, about a soldier and his lover, in a clear parallel to
Bonaparte's own relationship with Désirée.[28] On 15
September Bonaparte was removed from the list of generals in
regular service, with the reason given being his refusal to serve
in the Vendée campaign. He now faced a difficult financial
situation and further reduced career prospects.[29]

On 3 October, royalists in Paris declared a rebellion against
the National Convention after they were
excluded from a new government, the Directory.[30]
One of the leaders of the Thermidorian Reaction, Paul
Barras knew of Bonaparte's military exploits at Toulon and gave
him command of the improvised forces in defence of the Convention
in the Tuileries Palace. Bonaparte had
witnessed the massacre of the King's Swiss Guard there
three years earlier and realised artillery would be key to its
defence.[8] He
ordered a young cavalry officer, Joachim Murat to seize large cannons and
used them to repel the attackers on 5 October 1795—13
VendémiaireAn IV in the French Republican Calendar.
1,400 royalists died and the rest fled.[30]
He had cleared the streets with "a whiff of grapeshot" according to
the 19th-century historian Thomas Carlyle, in The French
Revolution: A History.[31]

The defeat of the Royalist insurrection extinguished the threat
to the Convention and earned Bonaparte sudden fame, wealth, and the
patronage of the new Directory; Murat would become his
brother-in-law and one of his generals. Bonaparte was promoted to
Commander of the Interior and given command of the Army of
Italy.[20]
Within weeks he was romantically attached to Barras's former
mistress, Joséphine de Beauharnais, whom
he married on 9 March 1796, after he had broken off his engagement
to Désirée Clary.[32]

His application of conventional military ideas to real-world
situations effected his military triumphs, such as creative use of
artillery as a mobile force to support his infantry. He referred to his tactics thus: "I
have fought sixty battles and I have learned nothing which I did
not know at the beginning. Look at Caesar; he fought the first like
the last."[36] He
was adept at espionage
and deception and could win battles by concealment of troop
deployments and concentration of his forces on the 'hinge' of an
enemy's weakened front. If he could not use his favourite envelopment
strategy, he would take up the central position
and attack two cooperating forces at their hinge, swing round to
fight one until it fled, then turn to face the other.[37] In
this Italian campaign, Bonaparte's army captured 150,000 prisoners,
540 cannons and 170 standards.[38] The
French army fought 67 actions and won 18 pitched battles through
superior artillery technology and Bonaparte's tactics.[39]

During the campaign, Bonaparte became increasingly influential
in French politics. He published two newspapers, ostensibly for the
troops in his army, but widely circulated in France as well, and in
May 1797, founded a third newspaper, Le Journal de Bonaparte et
des hommes vertueux, which was published in Paris.[40]
Elections in mid-1797 gave the royalist party more power and
alarmed the Directory.[41] The
royalists attacked Bonaparte for looting Italy and claimed he had
overstepped his authority in dealings with the Austrians. Bonaparte
sent General Pierre Augereau to Paris to lead a
coup d'état and purge the royalists on 4 September—18 Fructidor. This left
Barras and his Republican allies in control again, but dependent on
Bonaparte who proceeded to peace negotiations with Austria. These
negotiations resulted in the Treaty of Campo Formio, and
Bonaparte returned to Paris in December as a hero, more popular
than the Directors.[42] He
met with Talleyrand,
France's new Foreign
Minister—who would later serve in the same capacity for Emperor
Napoleon—and they began to prepare for an invasion of England.[20]

Egyptian
expedition

After two months of planning, Bonaparte decided France's naval
power was not yet strong enough to confront the Royal Navy in the
English
Channel and proposed a military expedition to seize Egypt and
thereby undermine Britain's access to its trade interests in
India.[20]
Bonaparte wished to establish a French presence in the Middle East,
with the ultimate dream of linking with a Muslim enemy of the
British in India, Tipu
Sultan.[43]
Napoleon assured the Directory that "as soon as he had
conquered Egypt, he will establish relations with the Indian
princes and, together with them, attack the English in their
possessions."[44]
According to a February 1798 report by Talleyrand: "Having
occupied and fortified Egypt, we shall send a force of 15,000 men
from Suez to India, to join the
forces of Tipu-Sahib and drive away the English."[44]
The Directory, though troubled by the scope and cost of the
enterprise, agreed so the popular general would be absent from the
centre of power.[45]

En route to Egypt, Bonaparte reached Malta on 9 June 1798, then controlled by the Knights
Hospitaller. The two hundred Knights of French origin did not
support the Grand Master, Prussian Ferdinand von Hompesch zu
Bolheim, who had succeeded a Frenchman, and made it clear they
would not fight against their compatriots. Hompesch surrendered
after token resistance and Bonaparte captured a very important
naval base with the loss of only three men.[47]

General Bonaparte and his expedition eluded pursuit by the Royal
Navy and on 1 July landed at Alexandria.[20]
Bonaparte successfully fought the Battle of Chobrakit against the Mamluks, an old power in the Middle East. This
helped the French plan their attack in the Battle of the Pyramids fought
over a week later, about 6 km from the pyramids.
General Bonaparte's forces were greatly outnumbered by the Mamluks'
cavalry—20,000 against 60,000—but he formed hollow squares with
supplies kept safely inside. 300 French and approximately 6,000
Egyptians were killed.[48]

On 1 August, the British fleet under Horatio Nelson
captured or destroyed all but two French vessels in the Battle of the
Nile and Bonaparte's goal of a strengthened French position in
the Mediterranean Sea was frustrated.[49]
His army had nonetheless succeeded in a temporary increase of
French power in Egypt, though it faced repeated uprisings.[50] In
early 1799, he moved the army into the Ottoman province of Damascus (Syria and Galilee). Bonaparte led these 13,000 French
soldiers in the conquest of the coastal towns of Arish, Gaza, Jaffa, and Haifa.[51]
The attack on
Jaffa was particularly brutal: Bonaparte, on discovering many
of the defenders were former prisoners of war, ostensibly on parole, ordered the garrison and
1,400 prisoners to be executed by bayonet or drowning to save
bullets.[49]
Men, women and children were robbed and murdered for three
days.[52]

With his army weakened by disease — mostly bubonic
plague — and poor supplies, Bonaparte was unable to reduce
the fortress of Acre, and returned to Egypt in May.[49]
To speed up the retreat, he ordered plague-stricken men to be
poisoned.[53] His
supporters have argued this decision was necessary given the
continued harassment of stragglers by Ottoman forces and those left
behind alive were indeed tortured and beheaded by the Ottomans.
Back in Egypt, on 25 July, Bonaparte defeated an Ottoman amphibious
invasion at Abukir.[54]

Ruler of
France

"EXIT LIBERTÈ a la
FRANCOIS ! or BUONAPARTE closing
the Farce of Egalitè, at St. Cloud near Paris Nov. 10th.
1799", British satirical depiction of the 18 Brumaire coup
d'état, by James
Gillray.

While in Egypt, Bonaparte stayed informed of European affairs
through irregular delivery of newspapers and dispatches. He learned
France had suffered a series of defeats in the War of the Second
Coalition.[55]
On 24 August 1799, he took advantage of the temporary departure of
British ships from French coastal ports and set sail for France,
despite the fact he had received no explicit orders from Paris.[49]
The army was left in the charge of Jean
Baptiste Kléber.[56]
Unknown to Bonaparte, the Directory had sent him orders to return
to ward off possible invasions of French soil but poor lines of
communication meant the messages had failed to reach him.[55]
By the time he reached Paris in October, France's situation had
been improved by a series of victories. The Republic was bankrupt,
however, and the ineffective Directory was unpopular with the
French population.[57] The
Directory discussed Bonaparte's "desertion" but was too weak to
punish him.[55]

Bonaparte was approached by one of the Directors, Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, for his support in
a coup to overthrow the constitutional government.
The leaders of the plot included his brother Lucien
Bonaparte; the speaker of the Council of Five Hundred, Roger Ducos; another
Director, Joseph Fouché; and Talleyrand. On 9
November—18 Brumaire by the French Republican Calendar—Bonaparte
was charged with the safety of the legislative councils, who were
persuaded to remove to the Château de Saint-Cloud, to the
west of Paris, after a rumour of a Jacobin rebellion was spread by
the plotters.[58] By
the following day, the deputies had realised they faced an
attempted coup. Faced with their remonstrations, Bonaparte led
troops to seize control and disperse them, which left a rump
legislature to name Bonaparte, Sièyes, and Ducos as provisional
Consuls to administer the government.[49]

French
Consulate

Though Sieyès expected to dominate the new regime, he was
outmanoeuvred by Bonaparte, who drafted the Constitution of the Year
VIII and secured his own election as First Consul.[59] This
made Bonaparte the most powerful person in France and he took up
residence at the Tuileries.[49]

In 1800, Bonaparte and his troops crossed the Alps into Italy,
where French forces had been almost completely driven out by the
Austrians whilst he was in Egypt.[note
6] The campaign began badly for the French
after Bonaparte made strategic errors; one force was left besieged at Genoa but managed to
hold out and thereby occupy Austrian resources.[61]
This effort and French general Desaix's timely reinforcements, allowed
Bonaparte to narrowly avoid defeat and triumph over the Austrians
in June at the significant Battle of Marengo. Bonaparte's
brother Joseph led the peace negotiations in Lunéville and reported
that Austria, emboldened by British support, would not recognise
France's newly gained territory. As negotiations became
increasingly fractious, Bonaparte gave orders to his general Moreau to strike Austria once
more. Moreau led France to victory at Hohenlinden. As a result, the Treaty
of Lunéville was signed in February 1801: the French gains of
the Treaty of Campo Formio were reaffirmed and increased.[62]

Temporary peace in
Europe

Bonaparte set up a camp at Boulogne-sur-Mer to prepare for an
invasion of Britain but both countries had become tired of war and
signed the Treaty of Amiens in October 1801 and
March 1802; this included the withdrawal of British troops from
most colonial territories it had recently occupied.[61]
The peace was uneasy and short-lived; Britain did not evacuate
Malta as promised and protested against Bonaparte's annexation of Piedmont and his Act of
Mediation, which established a new Swiss Confederation,
though neither of these territories were covered by the Treaty.[63] The
dispute culminated in a declaration of war by Britain in May 1803,
and he reassembled the invasion camp at Boulogne.[49]

Bonaparte faced a major setback and eventual defeat in the
Haitian Revolution. By the Law of 20 May 1802 Bonaparte
re-established slavery in
France's colonial possessions, where it had been banned following
the Revolution.[64]
Following a slave revolt, he sent an army to reconquer Saint-Domingue
and establish a base. The force was, however, destroyed by yellow fever and
fierce resistance led by Haitian generals Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines.[note 7]
Faced by imminent war against Britain and bankruptcy, he recognised
French possessions on the mainland of North America would be
indefensible and sold them to the United States—the Louisiana
Purchase—for less than three cents per acre ($7.40 per km²).[66]

Reforms

Bonaparte instituted lasting reforms, including centralised
administration of the departments, higher
education, a tax code, road and sewer systems and the Banque de
France—the country's central bank. He negotiated the Concordat of
1801 with the Catholic Church, which sought to reconcile the
mostly Catholic population to his regime. It was presented
alongside the Organic Articles, which regulated
public worship in France. Later that year, Bonaparte became
President of the French Academy of Sciences and appointed Jean Baptiste Joseph
Delambre its Permanent Secretary.[46]
In May 1802, he instituted the Légion d'Honneur,
a substitute for the old royalist decorations and orders of
chivalry, to encourage civilian and military achievements; the
order is still the highest decoration in France.[67] His
powers were increased by the Constitution of the Year X
including: Article 1. The French people name, and the Senate
proclaims Napoleon-Bonaparte First Consul for Life.[68] After
this he was generally referred to as Napoleon rather than
Bonaparte.[16]

Napoleon's set of civil
laws, the Code Civil—now often known as the Napoleonic
code—was prepared by committees of legal experts under the
supervision of Jean Jacques Régis de
Cambacérès, the Second Consul. Napoleon participated
actively in the sessions of the Council of State that revised
the drafts. The development of the Code was a fundamental change in
the nature of the civil law legal system with
its stress on clearly written and accessible law. Other codes were
commissioned by Napoleon to codify criminal and commerce law; a
Code of Criminal Instruction was published, which enacted rules of
due process.[69] See
Legacy.

French
Empire

Napoleon faced royalist and Jacobin plots as France's ruler,
including the Conspiration des
poignards [Daggers conspiracy] in October 1800 and the Plot of the Rue
Saint-Nicaise two months later.[70] In
January 1804, his police uncovered an assassination plot against
him which involved Moreau and which was ostensibly sponsored by the
Bourbon
former rulers of France. On the advice of Talleyrand, Napoleon
ordered the kidnapping of the Duke of Enghien, in violation of
neighbouring Baden's
sovereignty. After a secret trial the Duke was executed, even
though he had not been involved in the plot.[71]

Napoleon used the plot to justify the re-creation of a
hereditary monarchy in France, with himself as Emperor, as a Bourbon restoration would be more
difficult if the Bonapartist succession was entrenched in the
constitution.[72]
Napoleon crowned himself Emperor Napoleon I on
2 December 1804 at Notre Dame de Paris and then
crowned Joséphine Empress. Claims that he seized the crown out of
the hands of Pope
Pius VII during the ceremony—to avoid his subjugation to the
authority of the pontiff—are apocryphal; the
coronation procedure had been agreed in advance.[note 8]
At Milan
Cathedral on 26 May 1805, Napoleon was crowned King of Italy with
the Iron Crown of Lombardy. He
created eighteen Marshals of the Empire from
amongst his top generals, to secure the allegiance of the army. Ludwig
van Beethoven, a long-time admirer, was disappointed at this
turn towards imperialism, and scratched his dedication to Napoleon
from his 3rd Symphony.[72]

War
of the Third Coalition

By 1805, Britain had convinced Austria and Russia to join a
Third Coalition against France. Napoleon knew the French fleet
could not defeat the Royal Navy in a head-to-head battle and
planned to lure it away from the English Channel. The French Navy would
escape from the British blockades of Toulon and Brest and threaten
to attack the West Indies, thus drawing off the British defence of
the Western Approaches, in the hope a
Franco-Spanish fleet could take control of the Channel long enough
for French armies to cross from Boulogne and invade
England.[73]
However, after defeat at the naval Battle of Cape
Finisterre in July 1805 and Admiral Villeneuve's retreat
to Cadiz, invasion was never again a realistic option for
Napoleon.[74]

Instead, he ordered the army stationed at Boulogne, his Grande
Armée, to secretly march to Germany in a turning
movement—the Ulm
Campaign. This encircled the Austrian forces about to attack
France and severed their lines of communication. On 20 October
1805, the French captured 30,000 prisoners at Ulm, though the
next day Britain's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar meant the Royal
Navy gained control of the seas. Six weeks later, on the first
anniversary of his coronation, Napoleon defeated Austria and Russia
at Austerlitz. This ended the Third
Coalition and he commissioned the Arc de Triomphe to commemorate the
victory. Austria had to concede territory: the Peace of
Pressburg led to the dissolution of the Holy Roman
Empire and creation of the Confederation of the Rhine
with Napoleon named as its Protector.[75]

Napoleon would go on to say that "The battle of Austerlitz is
the finest of all I have fought."[76] Frank
McLynn suggests Napoleon was so successful at Austerlitz he lost
touch with reality, and what used to be French foreign policy
became a "personal Napoleonic one".[77]Vincent Cronin
disagrees, stating Napoleon was not overly ambitious for himself,
that "he embodied the ambitions of thirty million Frenchmen".[78]

Middle-Eastern alliances

Even after the failed campaign in Egypt, Napoleon continued to
entertain a grand scheme to establish a French presence in the
Middle East.[43]
An alliance with Middle-Eastern powers would have the strategic
advantage of pressuring Russia on its southern border. From 1803,
Napoleon went to considerable lengths to try to convince the
Ottoman Empire to fight against Russia in the Balkans and join his anti-Russian
coalition.[79]
Napoleon sent General Horace Sebastiani
as envoy extraordinary, promising to help the Ottoman Empire
recover lost territories.[79]
In February 1806, following Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz and
the ensuing dismemberment of the Habsburg Empire,
the Ottoman Emperor Selim
III finally recognized Napoleon as Emperor, formally opting for
an alliance with France "our sincere and natural ally",
and war with Russia and England.[80] A
Franco-Persian alliance was also formed, from 1807 to 1809, between
Napoleon and the Persian Empire of Fath Ali Shah, against Russia and Great
Britain. The alliance ended when France allied with Russia and
turned its focus to European campaigns.[43]

With his Milan
and Berlin
Decrees, Napoleon attempted to enforce a Europe-wide commercial
boycott of Britain called the Continental System. This act of
economic warfare did not succeed, as it encouraged British
merchants to smuggle into continental Europe and Napoleon's
exclusively land-based customs enforcers could not stop them.[84]

Peninsular
War

Portugal did not comply with the Continental System so, in 1807,
Napoleon invaded with the support of Spain. Under the pretext of a
reinforcement of the Franco-Spanish army occupying Portugal,
Napoleon invaded Spain as well, replaced Charles
IV with his brother Joseph and placed his brother-in-law
Joachim Murat in Joseph's stead at Naples. This led to resistance
from the Spanish army and civilians in the Dos de
Mayo Uprising.[85]
Following a French retreat from much of the country, Napoleon took
command and defeated the Spanish Army. He retook Madrid, then
outmanoeuvred a British army sent to support the Spanish and drove
it to the coast.[86]
Before the Spanish population had been fully subdued, Austria again
threatened war and Napoleon returned to France.[87]

The costly and often brutal Peninsular War continued in
Napoleon's absence; in the second Siege of Saragossa most of
the city was destroyed and over 50,000 people perished.[88]
Although Napoleon left 300,000 of his finest troops to battle
Spanish guerrillas as well as British and
Portuguese forces commanded by Arthur Wellesley,
1st Duke of Wellington, French control over the peninsula again
deteriorated.[89]
Following several allied victories, the war concluded after
Napoleon's abdication in 1814.[90]
Napoleon later described the Peninsular War as central to his final
defeat, writing in his memoirs That unfortunate war destroyed
me... All... my disasters are bound up in that fatal knot.[91]

War of the Fifth
Coalition and remarriage

In April 1809, Austria abruptly broke its alliance with France
and Napoleon was forced to assume command of forces on the Danube
and German fronts. After early successes, the French faced
difficulties in crossing the Danube and suffered a defeat in May at the Battle of Aspern-Essling near
Vienna. The Austrians failed
to capitalise on the situation and allowed Napoleon's forces to
regroup. He defeated the Austrians again at Wagram and a
new peace, the Treaty of Schönbrunn, was signed
between Austria and France.[92]

Britain was the other member of the coalition. In addition to
the Iberian Peninsula, the British planned to open another front in
mainland Europe. However, Napoleon was able to rush reinforcements
to Antwerp, owing to Britain's inadequately organised Walcheren
Campaign.[93] He
concurrently annexed the Papal States because of the Church's
refusal to support the Continental System; Pope Pius VII responded
by excommunicating the emperor. The Pope
was then abducted by Napoleon's officers, and though Napoleon had
not ordered his abduction, he did not order Pius' release. The Pope
was moved throughout Napoleon's territories, sometimes while ill,
and Napoleon sent delegations to pressure him on issues including
agreement to a new concordat with France, which Pius refused. In
1810 Napoleon married the Austrian Marie Louise, Duchess of
Parma, following his divorce of Joséphine; this further
strained his relations with the Church and thirteen cardinals were
imprisoned for non-attendance at the marriage ceremony.[94] The
Pope remained confined for 5 years, and did not return to Rome
until May 1814.[95]

First
French Empire at its greatest extent in 1811 French Empire Conquered "rebellious"
states Allied states

Napoleon consented to one of his marshals—and long-term rival—Bernadotte, ascent to the
Swedish throne in November 1810. Napoleon had indulged Bernadotte's
indiscretions because he was married to Désirée Clary, but came to
regret sparing his life when Bernadotte later sided Sweden with
France's enemies.[96]

The Congress of Erfurt sought to
preserve the Russo-French alliance and the leaders had a friendly
personal relationship after their first meeting at Tilsit in
1807.[97] By
1811, however, tensions between the two nations had increased and
Alexander was under pressure from the Russian nobility to break off the
alliance. The first clear sign the alliance had deteriorated was
the relaxation of the Continental System in Russia, which angered
Napoleon.[98] By
1812, advisers to Alexander suggested the possibility of an
invasion of the French Empire and the recapture of Poland. On
receipt of intelligence reports on Russia's war preparations,
Napoleon expanded his Grande Armée to more than 450,000
men. He ignored repeated advice against an invasion of the vast
Russian heartland and prepared for an offensive campaign; on 23
June 1812, his invasion of Russia commenced.[99]

In an attempt to gain increased support from Polish nationalists
and patriots, Napoleon termed the war the Second Polish
War—the First Polish War had been the Bar
Confederation uprising by Polish nobles against Russia in 1768.
Polish patriots wanted the Russian part of Poland to be joined with
the Duchy of Warsaw and an independent Poland created. This was
rejected by Napoleon, who stated he had promised his ally Austria
this would not happen. Napoleon refused to manumit the Russian serfs, because of concerns
this might provoke a reaction in his army's rear. The serfs would
later commit atrocities against French soldiers during France's
retreat.[100]

The Russians avoided Napoleon's objective of a decisive
engagement and instead retreated deeper into Russia. A brief
attempt at resistance was made at Smolensk in August; the
Russians were defeated in a series of battles and Napoleon resumed
his advance. The Russians again avoided battle, although in a few
cases this was only achieved because Napoleon uncharacteristically
hesitated to attack when the opportunity arose. Owing to the
Russian army's scorched earth tactics, the French found
it increasingly difficult to forage food for themselves and their
horses.[101]

Charles Joseph Minard's graph
shows the decreasing size of the Grande Armée as it
marched to Moscow and back

The Russians eventually offered battle outside Moscow on 7
September: the Battle of Borodino resulted in
approximately 44,000 Russian and 35,000 French, dead, wounded or
captured, and may have been the bloodiest day of battle in history
up to that point.[102]
Although the French had won, the Russian army had accepted, and
withstood, the major battle Napoleon had hoped would be decisive.
Napoleon's own account was: "The most terrible of all my battles
was the one before Moscow. The French showed themselves to be
worthy of victory, but the Russians showed themselves worthy of
being invincible."[103]

The Russian army withdrew and retreated past Moscow. Napoleon
entered the city, assuming its fall would end the war and Alexander
would negotiate peace. However, on orders of the city's governor Fyodor
Rostopchin, rather than capitulation, Moscow was ordered
burned. After a month, concerned about loss of control back in
France, Napoleon and his army left.[104]

The French suffered greatly in the course of a ruinous retreat,
including from the harshness of the Russian Winter. The Armée had begun as
over 400,000 frontline troops, but in the end fewer than 40,000
crossed the Berezina River in November 1812, to
escape.[105] The
Russians had lost 150,000 in battle and hundreds of thousands of
civilians.[106]

War
of the Sixth Coalition

There was a lull in fighting over the winter of 1812–13 while
both the Russians and the French rebuilt their forces; Napoleon was
then able to field 350,000 troops.[107]
Heartened by France's loss in Russia, Prussia joined with Austria,
Sweden, Russia, Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal in a new
coalition. Napoleon assumed command in Germany and inflicted a
series of defeats on the Coalition culminating in the Battle of
Dresden in August 1813.[108]
Despite these successes, the numbers continued to mount against
Napoleon and the French army was pinned down by a force twice its
size and lost at the Battle of Leipzig. This was by far
the largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars and cost more than 90,000
casualties in total.[109]

Napoleon withdrew back into France, his army reduced to 70,000
soldiers and 40,000 stragglers, against more than three times as
many Allied troops.[110] The
French were surrounded: British armies pressed from the south, and
other Coalition forces positioned to attack from the German states.
Napoleon won a series of victories in the Six Days
Campaign, though these were not significant enough to turn the
tide and Paris was captured by the Coalition in March 1814.[111]

When Napoleon proposed the army march on the capital, his
marshals decided to mutiny.[112] On
4 April, led by Ney,
they confronted Napoleon. Napoleon asserted the army would follow
him and Ney replied the army would follow its generals. Napoleon
had no choice but to abdicate. He did so in favour of his son;
however, the Allies refused to accept this and Napoleon was forced
to abdicate unconditionally on 11 April.

The Allied Powers having declared that Emperor Napoleon was
the sole obstacle to the restoration of peace in Europe, Emperor
Napoleon, faithful to his oath, declares that he renounces, for
himself and his heirs, the thrones of France and Italy, and that
there is no personal sacrifice, even that of his life, which he is
not ready to do in the interests of France.
Done in the palace of Fontainebleau, 11 April 1814.

In the Treaty of Fontainebleau
the victors exiled him to Elba, an
island of 12,000 inhabitants in the Mediterranean, 20 km off
the Tuscan coast. They gave
him sovereignty over the island and allowed him to retain his title
of Emperor. Napoleon attempted suicide with a pill he had carried
since a near-capture by Russians on the retreat from Moscow. Its
potency had weakened with age and he survived to be exiled, while
his wife and son took refuge in Vienna.[114] In
the first few months on Elba he created a small navy and army,
developed the iron mines, and issued decrees on modern agricultural
methods.[115]

Hundred
Days

Separated from his wife and son, who had come under Austrian
control, cut off from the allowance guaranteed to him by the Treaty
of Fontainebleau, and aware of rumours he was about to be banished
to a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean, Napoleon escaped from
Elba on 26 February 1815. He landed at Golfe-Juan on the French mainland, two days
later.[116] The
5th Regiment was sent to
intercept him and made contact just south of Grenoble on 7 March 1815. Napoleon approached
the regiment alone, dismounted his horse and, when he was within
gunshot range, shouted, "Here I am. Kill your Emperor, if you
wish."[117] The
soldiers responded with, "Vive L'Empereur!" and marched with
Napoleon to Paris; Louis XVIII fled. On 13 March,
the powers at the Congress of Vienna declared Napoleon
an outlaw and four days later
Great Britain, the Netherlands, Russia, Austria and Prussia bound
themselves to put 150,000 men into the field to end his rule.[118]

Napoleon arrived in Paris on 20 March and governed for a period
now called the Hundred Days. By the start of June the armed forces
available to him had reached 200,000 and he decided to go on the
offensive to attempt to drive a wedge between the oncoming British
and Prussian armies. The French Army of the North crossed the
frontier into the United Kingdom of the
Netherlands, in modern-day Belgium.[119]

Napoleon's forces fought the allies, led by Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von
Blücher, at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815.
Wellington's army withstood repeated attacks by the French and
drove them from the field while the Prussians arrived in force and
broke through Napoleon's right flank. The French army left the
battlefield in disorder, which allowed Coalition forces to enter
France and restore Louis XVIII to the French throne. Off the port
of Rochefort,
Charente-Maritime, after consideration of an escape to the
United States, Napoleon formally demanded political asylum from the
British Captain Frederick Maitland on HMS Bellerophon on
15 July 1815.[120]

Napoleon was imprisoned and then exiled to the island of Saint Helena in the
Atlantic Ocean, 2,000 km from any major landmass. In his first
two months there, he lived in a pavilion on the Briars estate, which belonged to a
William Balcombe. Napoleon became friendly with his family,
especially his younger daughter Lucia Elizabeth who later wrote
Recollections of the Emperor Napoleon.[121]
This friendship ended in 1818 when British authorities became
suspicious that Balcombe had acted as an intermediary between
Napoleon and Paris, and dismissed him from the island.[122]

Napoleon moved to Longwood House in December 1815; it had
fallen into disrepair, and the location was damp, windswept and
unhealthy. The
Times published articles insinuating that the British
government was trying to hasten his death and he often complained
of the living conditions in letters to the governor and his
custodian, Hudson
Lowe.[123]
With a small cadre of followers, Napoleon dictated his memoirs and
criticised his captors—particularly Lowe. Lowe's treatment of
Napoleon is regarded as poor by historians such as Frank
McLynn.[124]
Lowe exacerbated a difficult situation through measures including a
reduction in Napoleon's expenditure, a rule that no gifts could be
delivered to him if they mentioned his imperial status, and a
document that his supporters had to sign that guaranteed they would
stay with the prisoner indefinitely.[124]

In 1818, The Times reported a false rumour of
Napoleon's escape and said the news had been greeted by spontaneous
illuminations in London.[note 9]
There was sympathy for him in the British Parliament: Lord Holland gave
a speech which demanded the prisoner be treated with no unnecessary
harshness.[126]
Napoleon kept himself informed of the events through The
Times and hoped for release in the event that Holland became
Prime Minister. He also enjoyed the support of Lord Cochrane,
who was involved in Chile's and Brazil's struggle for independence
and wanted to rescue Napoleon and help him set up a new empire in
South America, a scheme frustrated by Napoleon's death in 1821.[127]
There were other plots to rescue Napoleon from captivity including
one from Texas, where exiled
soldiers from the Grande Armée wanted a resurrection of
the Napoleonic Empire in America. There was even a plan to rescue
him with a primitive submarine.[128] For
Lord Byron,
Napoleon was the epitome of the Romantic hero, the persecuted,
lonely and flawed genius. The news that Napoleon had taken up
gardening at Longwood also appealed to more domestic British
sensibilities.[129]

Death

In February 1821, his health began to fail rapidly and on 3 May,
two British physicians who had recently arrived, attended him and
could only recommend palliatives.[130]
He died two days later, after confession, Extreme Unction
and Viaticum at the hands
of Father Ange Vignali.[130]
His last words were, "France, armée, tête d'armée,
Joséphine."("France, army, head of the army, Joséphine.")[130]
Napoleon's original death mask was created around 6 May, though it
is not clear which doctor created it.[131][note 10]
In his will, he had asked to be buried on the banks of the Seine, but the British governor
said he should be buried on St. Helena, in the Valley of the
Willows. Hudson Lowe insisted the inscription should read
'Napoleon Bonaparte', Montholon and Bertrand wanted the Imperial title
'Napoleon' as royalty were signed by their first names only. As a
result the tomb was left nameless.[130]

Cause of
death

Napoleon's physician, Francesco
Antommarchi, led the autopsy which found the cause of death to be stomach cancer,
though he did not sign the official report, stating, "What had I to
do with... English reports?"[134]
Napoleon's father had died of stomach cancer though this was
seemingly unknown at the time of the autopsy.[135]
Antommarchi found evidence of a stomach ulcer and it was the most
convenient explanation for the British who wanted to avoid
criticism over their care of the Emperor.[130]

Napoléon sur son lit de mort [Napoleon on his death bed],
by Horace
Vernet, 1826

In 1955, the diaries of Napoleon's valet, Louis Marchand,
appeared in print. His description of Napoleon in the months before
his death led Sten Forshufvud to put forward other
causes for his death, including deliberate arsenic
poisoning, in a 1961 paper in Nature.[136]
Arsenic was used as a poison during the era because it was
undetectable when administered over a long period. Forshufvud, in a
1978 book with Ben
Weider, noted the emperor's body was found to be remarkably
well-preserved when moved in 1840. Arsenic is a strong preservative
and therefore this supported the poisoning hypothesis. Forshufvud
and Weider observed that Napoleon had attempted to quench abnormal
thirst by drinking high levels of orgeat syrup that contained cyanide
compounds in the almonds used for flavouring. They maintained that
the potassium
tartrate used in his treatment prevented his stomach from
expellation of these compounds and that the thirst was a symptom of
poisoning. Their hypothesis was that the calomel given to Napoleon
became an overdose, which killed him and left behind extensive tissue
damage.[136]
A 2007 article stated that the type of arsenic found in Napoleon's
hair shafts was mineral type, the most toxic, and according to
toxicologist Dr Patrick Kintz, this supported the conclusion that
his death was murder.[137]

The wallpaper used in Longwood contained a high level of arsenic
compound used for colouring by British manufacturers. The adhesive,
which in the cooler British environment was innocuous, may have
grown mold in the more humid
climate and emitted the poisonous gas arsine. This theory has been ruled out as it
does not explain the arsenic absorption patterns found in other
analyses.[136]
A 2004 group of researchers claimed treatments imposed on the
emperor accidentally caused death by Torsades de pointes—a condition in
which the heart ceases to function properly.[138]

There have been modern studies which have supported the original
autopsy finding.[137]
Researchers, in a 2008 study, analysed samples of Napoleon's hair
from throughout his life, and from his family and other
contemporaries. All samples had high levels of arsenic,
approximately 100 times higher than the current average. According
to these researchers, Napoleon's body was already heavily
contaminated with arsenic as a boy, and the high arsenic
concentration in his hair was not due to intentional poisoning;
people were constantly exposed to arsenic from glues and dyes,
throughout their lives.[note 11]
A 2007 study found no evidence of arsenic poisoning in the relevant
organs and stated that stomach cancer was the cause of death.[140]

Marriages
and children

Napoleon married Joséphine de Beauharnais in
1796, when he was twenty-six; she was a thirty-two-year-old widow
whose first husband had been executed during the Revolution. Until
she met Bonaparte, she had been known as 'Rose', a name which he
disliked. He called her 'Joséphine' instead, and she went by this
name henceforth. Bonaparte often sent her love letters while on his
campaigns.[141] He
formally adopted her son Eugène and cousin Stéphanie, and arranged
dynastic marriages for them. Joséphine had her daughter Hortense marry Napoleon's
brother, Louis.[142]

Joséphine had lovers, including a Hussar lieutenant, Hippolyte Charles, during
Napoleon's Italian campaign.[143]
Napoleon learnt the full extent of her affair with Charles while in
Egypt, and a letter he wrote to his brother Joseph regarding the
subject was intercepted by the British. The letter appeared in the
London and Paris presses, much to Napoleon's embarrassment.
Napoleon had his own affairs too: during the Egyptian campaign he
took Pauline Bellisle Foures, the wife of a junior officer, as his
mistress. She became known as Cleopatra after the
Ancient Egyptian
ruler.[144][note
12]

While Napoleon's mistresses had children by him, Joséphine did
not produce an heir, possibly because of either the stresses of her
imprisonment during the Terror or an abortion she may have had
in her twenties.[146]
Napoleon ultimately chose divorce so he could remarry in search of
an heir. In March 1810, he married by proxyMarie Louise,
Archduchess of Austria, and a great niece of Marie
Antoinette; thus he had married into the German royal family. They
remained married until his death, though she did not join him in
exile on Elba and thereafter never saw her husband again. The
couple had one child, Napoleon Francis Joseph Charles
(1811–1832), known from birth as the King of Rome. He became Napoleon II
in 1814 and reigned for only two weeks. He was awarded the title of
the Duke of Reichstadt in 1818 and died of tuberculosis aged 21, with no
children.[147]

Image

In The Plumb-pudding in danger (1805), James Gillray
caricatured a tall Pitt and a diminutive Napoleon

Napoleon has become a worldwide cultural icon who symbolises military genius and political
power. Since his death, many towns, streets, ships, and even
cartoon characters have been named after him. He has been portrayed
in hundreds of films and discussed in hundreds of thousands of
books and articles.[151]

During the Napoleonic Wars he was taken seriously by some in the
British press as a dangerous tyrant, poised to invade. A nursery rhyme
warned children that Bonaparte ravenously ate naughty people; the
'bogeyman'.[152] The
British Tory press sometimes
depicted Napoleon as much smaller than average height and this image
persists. Confusion about his height also results from the
difference between the French pouce and British inch—2.71
and 2.54 cm respectively; he was 1.7 metres
(5 ft 7 in) tall, average height for the period,
sometimes quoted as 1.68 metres
(5 ft 6 in).[153][note
13]

Legacy

Warfare

Statue in Cherbourg-Octeville unveiled by
Napoleon III in 1858. Napoleon I strengthened the town's defences
to prevent British naval incursions.

In the field of military
organisation, Napoleon borrowed from previous theorists such as
Jacques Antoine
Hippolyte, Comte de Guibert, the reforms of preceding French
governments and developed much of what was already in place. He
continued the policy, which emerged from the Revolution, of
promotion based primarily on merit.[157]Corps replaced divisions as the
largest army units, mobile artillery was
integrated into reserve batteries, the staff system became more
fluid and cavalry returned as an important formation in French
military doctrine—these methods are now referred to as essential
features of Napoleonic warfare.[157]
Though he consolidated the practice of modern conscription
introduced by the Directory, one of the restored monarchy's first
acts was to end it.[158]

Weapons and other kinds of military technology remained largely
static through the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras, but 18th
century operational mobility underwent
significant change.[159]
Napoleon's biggest influence was in the conduct of warfare.
Napoleon was regarded by the influential military theorist Carl von
Clausewitz as a genius in the operational art of war and
historians rank him as a great military commander.[160]
Wellington, when asked who was the greatest general of the day,
answered: "In this age, in past ages, in any age, Napoleon."[161]

A new emphasis towards the destruction, not just outmanoeuvring,
of enemy armies emerged. Invasions of enemy territory occurred over
broader fronts which made wars costlier and more decisive. The
political impact of war increased significantly; defeat for a
European power now meant more than the loss of isolated enclaves.
Near-Carthaginian peaces intertwined
whole national efforts, intensifying the Revolutionary phenomenon
of total war.[162]

Metric
system

The official introduction of the metric system in September 1799
was unpopular in large sections of French society, and Napoleon's
rule greatly aided adoption of the new standard across not only
France but the French sphere of influence. Napoleon
ultimately took a retrograde step in 1812, as he passed legislation
to return France to its traditional units of measurement, but these
were decimalised and the foundations were laid for the definitive
introduction of the metric system across Europe in the middle of
the 19th century.[163]

Jewish
emancipation

Napoleon emancipated Jews from laws which
restricted them to ghettos, and expanded their rights to
property, worship, and careers. Despite the anti-semitic reaction
to Napoleon's policies from foreign governments and within France,
he believed emancipation would benefit France by attracting Jews to
the country given the restrictions they faced elsewhere.[164] He
stated that, "I will never accept any proposals that will obligate
the Jewish people to leave France, because to me the Jews are the
same as any other citizen in our country. It takes weakness to
chase them out of the country, but it takes strength to assimilate
them."[165] He
was seen as so favourable to the Jews that the Russian Orthodox Church
formally condemned him as "Antichrist and the Enemy of God".[166]

Napoleonic
Code

The Napoleonic code was adopted throughout much of Europe,
though only in the lands he conquered, and remained in force after
Napoleon's defeat. Napoleon said: "My true glory is not to have won
40 battles...Waterloo will erase the memory of so many
victories. ... But...what will live forever, is my Civil
Code."[167] The
Code still has importance today in a quarter of the world's
jurisdictions including in Europe, the Americas and Africa.[168]
Dieter Langewiesche described the code as a "revolutionary project"
which spurred the development of bourgeoisie society in Germany by the
extension of the right to own property and an acceleration towards the end
of feudalism. Napoleon
reorganised what had been the Holy Roman Empire, made up of more
than a thousand entities, into a more streamlined forty-state Confederation of the Rhine;
this provided the basis for the German Confederation and the unification of Germany in
1871.[169] The
movement toward national unification in Italy was similarly
precipitated by Napoleonic rule.[170]
These changes contributed to the development of nationalism and the Nation state.[171]

Admirers
and critics

Napoleon ended lawlessness and disorder in post-Revolutionary
France.[173] He
was, however, considered a tyrant and usurper by his opponents.[174]
His critics charge that he was not significantly troubled when
faced with the prospect of war and death for thousands, turned his
search for undisputed rule into a series of conflicts throughout
Europe and ignored treaties and conventions alike. Napoleon
institutionalised plunder of conquered territories: French museums
contain art stolen by Napoleon's forces from across Europe.
Artefacts were brought to the Louvre for a grand central Museum; his example
would later serve as inspiration for more notorious imitators.[175] He
was compared to Hitler most famously by the historian Pieter Geyl in
1947.[176]David G.
Chandler, historian of Napoleonic warfare, replied that
"nothing could be more degrading to the former and more flattering
to the latter."[177]

When other countries offered terms to Napoleon which would have
restored France's borders to positions that would have delighted
his predecessors, Napoleon refused compromise and only accepted his
enemies' surrender.

Critics argue that Napoleon's true legacy must reflect the loss
of status for France and needless deaths brought by his rule:
historian Victor Davis Hanson writes, "After
all, the military record is unquestioned—17 years of wars,
perhaps six million Europeans dead,
France bankrupt, her overseas colonies lost."[179]
McLynn notes that, "He can be viewed as the man who set back
European economic life for a generation by the dislocating impact
of his wars.[174]
Vincent Cronin replies that such criticism relies on the flawed
premise that Napoleon was responsible for the wars which bear his
name, when in fact France was the victim of a series of coalitions
which aimed to destroy the ideals of the Revolution.[180]

Notes

^
At Brienne, Napoleon first met the Champagne maker Jean-Rémy
Moët. They became friends, and Napoleon would later frequently
stay at Moët's estate. Victorious French armies were known for
their indulgence in sabrage.[11]

^ The body can tolerate large
doses of arsenic if ingested regularly, and arsenic was a
fashionable cure-all.[139]

^ One night, during an illicit
liaison with the actress Marguerite George, Napoleon had a major
fit. This and other more minor attacks have led historians to
debate whether he had epilepsy and, if so, to what extent.[145]

^ Napoleon's height was 5 ft
2 French inches according to Antommarchi at Napoleon's autopsy and
British sources put his height at 5 ft 7 British inches: both
equivalent to 1.7 m.[154]
Napoleon surrounded himself with tall bodyguards and had a nickname
of le petit caporal which was an affectionate term that
reflected his reported camaraderie with his soldiers rather than
his height.

From Wikiquote

The true character of man ever displays itself in great
events.

Napoléon Bonaparte
(15 August1769 – 5 May1821) was a Corsican-born
military general who rose to prominence in the French Revolution,
becoming the ruler of France as First Consul of the French Republic
(11 November 1799 - 18 May 1804), and then Emperor of the French
and King of Italy under the name Napoleon I (18
May 1804 - 6 April 1814, and again briefly from 20 March - 22 June
1815).

Sourced

My waking thoughts are all of thee...

The barbarous custom of having men beaten who are suspected of
having important secrets to reveal must be abolished.

Send me 300 francs; that sum will enable me to go to
Paris. There, at least, one can cut a figure and surmount
obstacles. Everything tells me I shall succeed. Will you prevent me
from doing so for the want of 100 crowns?

Letter to his uncle, Joseph Fesch (June 1791),
as quoted in A Selection from the Letters and Despatches of the
First Napoleon. With Explanatory Notes (1884) edited by D. A.
Bingham, Vol. I, p. 24

My waking thoughts are all of thee. Your
portrait and the remembrance of last night's delirium have robbed
my senses of repose. Sweet and incomparable Josephine, what an
extraordinary influence you have over my heart. Are you vexed? Do I
see you sad? Are you ill at ease? My soul is broken with grief, and
there is no rest for your lover.

What is a throne? — a bit of wood gilded and covered in velvet. I
am the state...

France is invaded; I am leaving to take command of my troops, and,
with God's help and their valor, I hope soon to drive the enemy
beyond the frontier.

All great events hang by a hair. The man of ability
takes advantage of everything and neglects nothing that can give
him a chance of success; whilst the less able man sometimes loses
everything by neglecting a single one of those chances.

Letter to Minister of Foreign Affairs, Passariano (26 September
1797), as quoted in Napoleon as a General (1902) by
Maximilian Yorck von Wartenburg, p. 269

From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries
look down on us.

Speech to his troops in Egypt (21 July 1798) Variant
translation: "Soldiers, from the summit of yonder pyramids forty
centuries look down upon you...". Published in the autobiography of
French general Eugène de
Beauharnais.

What I have done up to this is nothing. I am only at
the beginning of the course I must run. Do you imagine
that I triumph in Italy in order to aggrandise the pack of lawyers
who form the Directory, and men like Carnot and Barras?
What an idea!

As quoted in Memoirs of Count Miot de Melito (1788 -
1815) as translated by Frances Cashel Hoey and John Lillie (1881),
Vol. II, p. 94

I do not care to play the part of Monk; I will not
play it myself, and I do not choose that others shall do
so. But those Paris lawyers who have got into the
Directory understand nothing of government. They are poor
creatures. I am going to see what they want to do at Rastadt; but I
doubt much that we shall understand each other, or long agree
together. They are jealous of me, I know, and notwithstanding all
their flattery, I am not their dupe; they fear more than they love
me. They were in a great hurry to make me General of the army of
England, so that they might get me out of Italy, where I am the
master, and am more of a sovereign than commander of an army. They
will see how things go on when I am not there. I am leaving Berthier, but he is not fit
for the chief command, and, I predict, will only make blunders. As
for myself, my dear Miot, I may inform you, I can no longer obey; I
have tasted command, and I cannot give it up. I have made up my
mind, if I cannot be master I shall leave France; I do not choose
to have done so much for her and then hand her over to lawyers.

Conversation at Turin, as quoted in Memoirs of Count Miot
de Melito (1788 - 1815) as translated by Frances Cashel Hoey
and John Lillie (1881), Vol. II, p. 113

'Monk' refers to George Monck, military ruler of Puritan
England after Cromwell, who ultimately gave up power when he
invited Charles II in and enabled the
English Restoration

I hope the time is not far off when I shall be able to
unite all the wise and educated men of all the countries and
establish a uniform regime based on the principles of the Quran
which alone are true and which alone can lead men to
happiness.

The barbarous custom of having men beaten who are
suspected of having important secrets to reveal must be abolished.
It has always been recognized that this way of interrogating men,
by putting them to torture, produces nothing worthwhile. The poor
wretches say anything that comes into their mind and what they
think the interrogator wishes to know.

On the subject of torture, in a letter to Louis Alexandre Berthier (11
November 1798), published in Correspondance Napoleon
edited by Henri Plon (1861), Vol. V, No. 3606, p. 128

A form of government that is not the result of a long
sequence of shared experiences, efforts, and endeavors can never
take root.

Statement (1803) as quoted in The Mind of Napoleon
(1955) by J. Christopher Herold

From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a
step.

Writing about the retreat from Moscow, in a letter to Abbé du
Pradt. (1812) [specific citation needed]

Variant translations:There is but one step from the sublime to the
ridiculous.
There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Le mot impossible n'est pas français.

The word impossible is not French.

Letter to General Jean Le Marois (9 July 1813), quoted in
Famous Sayings and their Authors (1906) by Edward Latham,
p. 138

Variant translation: You write to me that it is
impossible; the word is not French.

Variant attribution : Impossible is a word to be
found only in the dictionary of fools.

If the art of war were nothing but the art of avoiding
risks, glory would become the prey of mediocre minds.... I have
made all the calculations; fate will do the rest.

Statement at the beginning of the 1813 campaign, as quoted in
The Mind of Napoleon (1955) by J. Christopher Herold, p.
45

What is a throne? — a bit of wood gilded and covered in
velvet. I am the state— I alone am here the representative
of the people. Even if I had done wrong you should not have
reproached me in public—people wash their dirty linen at home.
France has more need of me than I of France.

Statement to the Senate (1814)[specific citation needed]
He echoes here the remark attributed to Louis
XIVL'état c'est moi ( "The State is I" or more
commonly: "I am the State.")

Variant translation: A throne is only a bench covered
with velvet...

France is invaded; I am leaving to take command of my troops,
and, with God's help and their valor, I hope soon to drive the
enemy beyond the frontier.

Statement at Paris (23 January 1814) [specific citation needed]

I generally had to give in.

I never was truly my own master but was always ruled by
circumstances.

The bullet that will kill me is not yet cast.

Statement at Montereau (17 February 1814) [specific citation needed]

The Allied Powers having proclaimed that the Emperor Napoleon
is the sole obstacle to the re-establishment of peace in Europe,
he, faithful to his oath, declares that he is ready to descend from
the throne, to quit France, and even to relinquish life, for the
good of his country.

Act of Abdication (4 April 1814)

Unite for the public safety, if you would remain an independent
nation.

Proclamation to the French People (22 June 1815)

Wherever wood can swim, there I am sure to find this flag of
England.

Statement at Rochefort (July 1815) [specific citation needed]

Whatever shall we do in that remote spot? Well, we will
write our memoirs. Work is the scythe of time.

On board H.M.S. Bellerophon (August 1815) [specific citation needed]

I generally had to give in.

Statement on his relations with the Empress Josephine (19 May
1816), quoted in The Story of Civilization (1935) by Will Durant and Ariel Durant, p. 234

Morality has nothing to do with such a man as I am.

I may have had many projects, but I never was free to
carry out any of them. It did me little good to be holding
the helm; no matter how strong my hands, the sudden and numerous
waves were stronger still, and I was wise enough to yield to them
rather than resist them obstinately and make the ship founder. Thus
I never was truly my own master but was always ruled by
circumstances.

The St. Helena Journal of General Baron Gourgaud (9
January 1817); as quoted in The St. Helena Journal of General
Baron Gourgaud, 1815-1818 : Being a Diary written at St.
Helena during a part of Napoleon's Captivity (1932) as
translated by Norman Edwards, a translation of Journal de
Sainte-Hélène 1815-1818 by General Gaspard Gourgaud

Statement while on St. Helena (3 March 1817) [specific citation needed]

Religions are all founded on miracles — on things we cannot
understand, such as the Trinity. Jesus calls himself the Son of God, and yet is
descended from David. I prefer the religion of Mahomet — it is less
ridiculous than ours.

Letter from St. Helena (28 August 1817); as quoted in The
St. Helena Journal of General Baron Gourgaud, 1815-1818 :
Being a Diary written at St. Helena during a part of Napoleon's
Captivity (1932) as translated by Norman Edwards, a
translation of Journal de Sainte-Hélène 1815-1818 by
General Gaspard Gourgaud, t.2, p.226

Muhammad was a great man, fearless soldier; with a handful of
men he triumphed at the battle of Badr, great
captain, eloquent, a great man of state, it regenerated his
homeland, and created in the middle of the deserts of Arabia a new
people and a new power.

Our hour is marked, and no one can claim a moment of life
beyond what fate has predestined.

To Dr. Arnott (April 1821) [specific citation needed]

I see that everybody has lost their head since the infamous
capitulation of Bailén. I realise that I must go there myself to
get the machine working again.

Said after the capitulation of Balien to the Spanish, as quoted
in The Art of Warfare on Land (1974) by David G. Chandler,
p. 164

Ordinary men died, men of iron were taken prisoner: I
only brought back with me men of bronze.

Statement of 1812, quoted in Napoleon's Cavalary and its
Leaders (1978) by David Johnson

Among so many conflicting ideas and so many different
perspectives, the honest man is confused and distressed and the
skeptic becomes wicked ... Since one must take sides, one might as
well choose the side that is victorious, the side which devastates,
loots, and burns. Considering the alternative, it is better to eat
than to be eaten.

Letter to his brother, as quoted in The Age of
Napoleon (2002) by J. Christopher Herold, p. 8

When you have an enemy in your power, deprive him of the means
of ever injuring you.

p. 30

He who fears being conquered is certain of
defeat.

p. 146

The greater the man, the less is he opinionative, he
depends upon events and circumstances.

p. 146

What is the government? nothing, unless supported by opinion.

p. 242

A constitution should be framed so as not to impede the action
of government, nor force the government to its violation.

p. 246

The people must not be counted upon; they cry
indifferently : "Long live the King!" and "Long live the
Conspirators!" a proper direction must be given to them, and proper
instruments employed to effect it.

p. 246

Hereditary succession to the magistracy is absurd, as it tends
to make a property of it; it is incompatible with the sovereignty
of the people.

p. 246

Orders and decorations are necessary in order to dazzle the
people.

p. 248

Power is founded upon opinion.

p. 248

Sometimes a great example is necessary to all the public
functionaries of the state.

p. 248

A Government protected by foreigners will never be accepted by
a free people.

A great people may be killed, but they cannot be
intimidated.

A great reserve and severity of manners are necessary for the
command of those who are older than ourselves.

A king is sometimes obliged to commit crimes; but they are the
crimes of his position.

A King should sacrifice the best affections of his heart for
the good of his country; no sacrifice should be above his
determination.

Greatness is nothing unless it be
lasting.

Many a one commits a reprehensible action, who is at bottom an
honourable man, because man seldom acts upon natural impulse, but
from some secret passion of the moment which lies hidden and
concealed within the narrowest folds of his heart.

The life of a citizen is the property of his country.

You cannot treat with all the world at once.

Napoleon : In
His Own Words (1916)

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916) edited
by Jules Bertaut, as translated by Herbert Edward Law and Charles
Lincoln Rhodes

Ch. I : On Success

There are only two forces that unite men — fear and
interest. All great revolutions originate in fear, for the
play of interests does not lead to accomplishment.

Audacity succeeds as often as it fails; in life it has an even
chance.

The superior man is never in anyone's
way.

There are so many laws that no one is safe from hanging.

Success is the most convincing talker in the
world.

As a rule it is circumstances that make men.

Impatience is a great obstacle to success; he who
treats everything with brusqueness gathers nothing, or only
immature fruit which will never ripen.

One must indeed be ignorant of the methods of genius to
suppose that it allows itself to be cramped by forms.
Forms are for mediocrity, and it is fortunate that mediocrity can
act only according to routine. Ability takes its flight
unhindered.

Never depend on the multitude, full of instability and whims;
always take precautions against it.

From triumph to downfall is but a step. I have seen a trifle
decide the most important issues in the gravest affairs.

It is only by prudence, wisdom, and dexterity, that
great ends are attained and obstacles overcome. Without these
qualities nothing succeeds.

The man fitted for affairs and authority never
considers individuals, but things and their
consequences.

A congress of the powers is deceit agreed on between diplomats
— it is the pen of Machiavelli combined with the scimitar of
Mahomet.

Destiny urges me to a goal of which I am ignorant.
Until that goal is attained I am invulnerable, unassailable. When
Destiny has accomplished her purpose in me, a fly may suffice to
destroy me.

Necessity dominates inclination, will, and right.

Ch. II : Psychology and Morals

Men have their virtues and their vices, their heroisms and
their perversities; men are neither wholly good nor wholly bad, but
possess and practice all that there is of good and bad here below.
Such is the general rule. Temperament, education, the accidents of
life, are modifying factors. Outside of this, everything is ordered
arrangement, everything is chance. Such has been my rule of
expectation and it has usually brought me success.

Whatever misanthropists may say, ingrates and the
perverse are exceptions in the human species.

The great mass of society are far from being depraved; for if a
large majority were criminal or inclined to break the laws, where
would the force or power be to prevent or constrain them? And
herein is the real blessing of civilization, because this happy
result has its origin in her bosom, growing out of her very
nature.

Imagination governs the world.

What are we? What is the future? What is the past? What magic
fluid envelops us and hides from us the things it is most important
for us to know? We are born, we live, and we die in the
midst of the marvelous.

To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all
that one would like to do, would be to be a god.

Man achieves in life only by commanding the capabilities nature
has given him, or by creating them within himself by education and
by knowing how to profit by the difficulties encountered.

It is a mistake, too, to say that the face is the mirror of the
soul. The truth is, men are very hard to know, and yet, not
to be deceived, we must judge them by their present actions, but
for the present only.

One is more certain to influence men, to produce more effect on
them, by absurdities than by sensible ideas.

It is not true that men never change; they change for the
worse, as well as for the better. It is not true they are
ungrateful; more often the benefactor rates his favors higher than
their worth; and often too he does not allow for circumstances. If
few men have the moral force to resist impulses, most men do carry
within themselves the germs of virtues as well as of vices, of
heroism as well as of cowardice. Such is human nature — education
and circumstances do the rest.

Ordinarily men exercise their memory much more than
their judgment.

There is nothing so imperious as feebleness which feels
itself supported by force.

True character stands the test of emergencies. Do not be
mistaken, it is weakness from which the awakening is rude.

How many seemingly impossible things have been accomplished by
resolute men because they had to do, or die.

The fool has one great advantage over a man of sense —
he is always satisfied with himself.

Simpletons talk of the past, wise men of the present, and fools
of the future.

One must learn to forgive and not to hold a hostile, bitter
attitude of mind, which offends those about us and prevents us from
enjoying ourselves; one must recognize human shortcomings and
adjust himself to them rather than to be constantly finding fault
with them.

It is not necessary to prohibit or encourage oddities
of conduct which are not harmful.

The best way to keep one's word is not to give it.

Ch. III : Love and Marriage

In love the only safety is in flight.

I do not believe it is in our nature to love impartially. We
deceive ourselves when we think we can love two beings, even our
own children, equally. There is always a dominant affection.

Ch. IV : Things Political

In politics nothing is immutable. Events carry within
them an invincible power. The unwise destroy themselves in
resistance. The skillful accept events, take strong hold of them
and direct them.

It is only with prudence, sagacity, and much dexterity that
great aims are accomplished, and all obstacles surmounted.
Otherwise nothing is accomplished.

The great difficulty with politics is, that there are no
established principles.

The truth is that one ought to serve his people worthily, and
not strive solely to please them. The best way to gain a people is
to do that which is best for them. Nothing is more dangerous than
to flatter a people. If it does not get what it wants immediately,
it is irritated and thinks that promises have not been kept; and if
then it is resisted, it hates so much the more as it feels itself
deceived.

Lead the ideas of your time and they will accompany and
support you; fall behind them and they drag you along with them;
oppose them and they will overwhelm you.

There is no such thing as an absolute despotism; it is only
relative. A man cannot wholly free himself from obligation to his
fellows. A sultan who cut off heads from caprice, would quickly
lose his own in the same way. Excesses tend to check themselves by
reason of their own violence. What the ocean gains in one place it
loses in another.

We are made weak both by idleness and distrust of ourselves.
Unfortunate, indeed, is he who suffers from both. If he is a mere
individual he becomes nothing; if he is a king he is lost.

A prince should suspect everything.

In politics, an absurdity is not an
impediment.

The most difficult art is not in the choice of men, but in
giving to the men chosen the highest service of which they are
capable.

Posterity alone rightly judges kings. Posterity alone has the
right to accord or withhold honors.

Obedience to public authority ought not to be based either on
ignorance or stupidity.

The laws of circumstance are abolished by new
circumstances.

Some revolutions are inevitable. There are moral eruptions,
just as the outbreak of volcanoes are physical eruptions. When the
chemical combinations which produce them are complete, the volcanic
eruptions burst forth, just as revolutions do when the moral
factors are in the right state. In order to foresee them the trend
of ideas must be understandingly observed.

One can lead a nation only by helping it see a bright
outlook. A leader is a dealer in hope.

It is rare that a legislature reasons. It is too quickly
impassioned.

Parties weaken themselves by their fear of capable
men.

Democracy may become frenzied, but it has feelings and can be
moved. As for aristocracy, it is always cold and never
forgives.

We frustrate many designs against us by pretending not
to see them.

To listen to the interests of all, marks an ordinary
government; to foresee them, marks a great government.

Peace ought to be the result of a system well considered,
founded on the true interests of the different countries, honorable
to each, and ought not to be either a capitulation or the result of
a threat.

Ch. V : Concerning the Fine Arts

A book in which there were no lies would be a curiosity.

All men of genius, and all those who have gained rank in the
republic of letters, are brothers, whatever may be the land of
their nativity.

It must be recognized that the real truths of history are hard
to discover. Happily, for the most part, they are rather matters of
curiosity than of real importance.

Dante has not deigned to take his
inspiration from any other. He has wished to be himself, himself
alone; in a word, to create. He has occupied a vast space,
and has filled it with the superiority of a sublime mind. He is
diverse, strong, and gracious. He has imagination, warmth, and
enthusiasm. He makes his reader tremble, shed tears, feel the
thrill of honor in a way that is the height of art. Severe and
menacing, he has terrible imprecations for crime, scourgings for
vice, sorrow for misfortune. As a citizen, affected by the laws of
the republic, he thunders against its oppressors, but he is always
ready to excuse his native city, Florence is ever to him his sweet,
beloved country, dear to his heart. I am envious for my dear
France, that she has never produced a rival to Dante; that this
Colossus has not had his equal among us. No, there is no reputation
which can be compared to his.

The division of labor, which has brought such perfection in
mechanical industries, is altogether fatal when applied to
productions of the mind. All work of the mind is superior in
proportion as the mind that produces it is universal.

Ch. VI : Administration

Laws which are consistent in theory often prove chaotic in
practice.

In practical administration, experience is everything.

Ch. VII : Concerning Religion

Aristocracy is the spirit of the Old Testament, democracy of
the New.

The existence of God is attested by everything that appeals to
our imagination. And if our eye cannot reach Him it is because He
has not permitted our intelligence to go so far.

Charity and alms are recommended in every chapter of the Koran as being the most
acceptable services, both to God and the Prophet.

The religious zeal which animates priests, leads them to
undertake labors and to brave perils which would be far beyond the
powers of one in secular employment.

Conscience is the most sacred thing among men.
Every man has within him a still small voice, which tells him that
nothing on earth can oblige him to believe that which he does not
believe. The worst of all tyrannies is that which obliges
eighteen-twentieths of a nation to embrace a religion contrary to
their beliefs, under penalty of being denied their rights as
citizens and of owning property, which, in effect, is the same
thing as being without a country.

Fanaticism must be put to sleep before it can be
eradicated.

Policemen and prisons ought never to be the means used to bring
men back to the practice of religion.

You cannot drag a man's conscience before any tribunal, and no
one is answerable for his religious opinions to any power on
earth.

The populace judges of the power of God by the power of the
priests.

I do not see in religion the mystery of the incarnation so much
as the mystery of the social order. It introduces into the thought
of heaven an idea of equalization, which saves the rich from being
massacred by the poor.

Man loves the marvelous. It has an irresistible charm for him.
He is always ready to leave that with which he is familiar to
pursue vain inventions. He lends himself to his own deception.

Our credulity is a part of the imperfection of our
natures. It is inherent in us to desire to generalize, when we
ought, on the contrary, to guard ourselves very carefully from this
tendency.

Ch. VII : On War

A general must be a charlatan.

Unhappy the general who comes on the field of battle with a
system.

It it is often in the audacity, in the steadfastness,
of the general that the safety and the conservation of his men is
found.

The military principles of Caesar were those of Hannibal, and those of Hannibal were those of
Alexander — to hold his forces in
hand, not to be vulnerable at any point, to throw all his forces
with rapidity on any given point.

An army which cannot be reenforced is already
defeated.

A commander in chief ought to say to himself several times a
day: If the enemy should appear on my front, on my right, on my
left, what would I do? And if the question finds him uncertain, he
is not well placed, he is not as he should be, and he should remedy
it.

The moment of greatest peril is the moment of victory.

At the beginning of a campaign it is important to
consider whether or not to move forward; but when one has taken the
offensive it is necessary to maintain it to the last
extremity. However skilfully effected a retreat may be, it
always lessens the morale of an army, since in losing the chances
of success, they are remitted to the enemy. A retreat, moreover,
costs much more in men and materials than the bloodiest
engagements, with this difference, also, that in a battle the enemy
loses practically as much as you do; while in a retreat you lose
and he does not.

Changing from the defensive to the offensive, is one of the
most delicate operations in war.

An army ought to be ready every moment to offer all the
resistance of which it is capable.

Never march by flank in front of an army in position. This
principle is absolute.

In a battle, as in a siege, the art consists in
concentrating very heavy fire on a particular point. The
line of battle once established, the one who has the ability to
concentrate an unlocked for mass of artillery suddenly and
unexpectedly on one of these points is sure to carry the day.

There is a joy in danger.

War is a serious game in which a man risks his reputation, his
troops, and his country. A sensible man will search himself to know
whether or not he is fitted for the trade.

There is only one favorable moment in war; talent
consists in knowing how to seize it.

He who cannot look over a battlefield with a dry eye, causes
the death of many men uselessly.

In war, theory is all right so far as general principles are
concerned; but in reducing general principles to practice there
will always be danger. Theory and practice are the axis about which
the sphere of accomplishment revolves.

The secret of great battles consists in knowing how to
deploy and concentrate at the right time.

The art of war consists in being always able, even with an
inferior army, to have stronger forces than the enemy at the point
of attack or the point which is attacked.

The praises of enemies are always to be suspected. A man of
honor will not permit himself to be flattered by them, except when
they are given after the cessation of hostilities.

The most desirable quality in a soldier is constancy in
the support of fatigue; valor is only secondary.

Policy and morals concur in repressing pillage.

Gentleness, good treatment, honor the victor and dishonor the
vanquished, who should remain aloof and owe nothing to pity — In
war, audacity is the finest calculation of genius.

In civil war it is not given to every man to know how to
conduct himself. There is something more than military prudence
necessary; there is need of sagacity and the knowledge of men.

Nothing is so contrary to military rules as to make the
strength of your army known, either in the orders of the day, in
proclamations, or in the newspapers.

War is a lottery in which nations ought to risk nothing but
small amounts.

Achilles was the son of a goddess and of a
mortal; in that, he is the image of the genius of war. The divine
part is all that that is derived from moral considerations of
character, talent, the interest of your adversary, of opinion, of
the temper of the soldier, which is strong and victorious, or
feeble and beaten, according as he believes this divine part to be.
The mortal part is the arms, the fortifications, the order of
battle — everything which arises out of material things.

Courage cannot be counterfeited. It is one virtue that
escapes hypocrisy.

In war one must lean on an obstacle in order to overcome
it.

In war, character and opinion make more than half of the
reality.

That dependable courage, which in spite of the most sudden
circumstances, nevertheless allows freedom of mind, of judgment and
of decision, is exceedingly rare.

War is becoming an anachronism; if we have
battled in every part of the continent it was because two opposing
social orders were facing each other, the one which dates from
1789, and the old regime. They could not exist together;
the-younger devoured the other. I know very well, that, in the
final reckoning, it was war that overthrew me, me the
representative of the French Revolution, and the instrument of its
principles. But no matter! The battle was lost for civilization,
and civilization will inevitably take its revenge. There are two
systems, the past and'the future. The present is only a painful
transition. Which must triumph? The future, will it not? Yes
indeed, the future! That is, intelligence, industry, and peace. The
past was brute force, privilege, and ignorance. Each of our
victories was a triumph for the ideas of the Revolution.
Victories will be won, one of these days, without cannon,
and without bayonets.

It is not that addresses at the opening of a battle
make the soldiers brave. The old veterans scarcely hear them, and
recruits forget them at the first boom of the cannon.
Their usefulness lies in their effect on the course of the
campaign, in neutralizing rumors and false reports, in maintaining
a good spirit in the camp, and in furnishing matter for camp-fire
talk. The printed order of the day should fulfill these different
ends.

What are the conditions that make for the superiority of an
army? Its internal organization, military habits in officers and
men, the confidence of each in themselves; that is to say, bravery,
patience, and all that is contained in the idea of moral
means.

The issue of a battle is the result of an instant, of a
thought. There is the advance, with its various
combinations, the battle is joined, the struggle goes on a certain
time, the decisive moment presents itself, a spark of genius
discloses it, and the smallest body of reserves accomplish
victory.

In war, groping tactics, half-way measures, lose
everything.

A man who has no consideration for the needs of his men
ought never to be given command.

To plan to reserve cavalry for the finish of the battle, is to
have no conception of the power of combined infantry and cavalry
charges, either for attack or for defense.

The general of the sea has need of only one science, that of
navigation. The one on land has need of all, or of a talent which
is the equivalent of all, that will enable him to profit by all
experience, and all knowledge. A general of the sea has nothing to
divine. He knows where his enemy is, he knows his strength. A
general on land never knows anything with certainty, never sees his
enemy well, and never knows positively where he is.

In order not to be astonished at obtaining victories,
one ought not to think only of defeats.

In war, luck is half in everything.

My most splendid campaign was that of March 20; not a
single shot was fired.

Ch. IX : Sociology

In France, only the impossible is admired.

The sentiment of national honor is never more than half
extinguished in the French. It takes only a spark to re-kindle
it.

France will always be a great nation.

The Turks can be killed, but they can never be conquered.

Europe is a molehill. It has never had any great empires, like
those of the Orient, numbering six hundred million souls.

Europe has its history, often tragic, though at intervals
consoling. But to speak of any universally recognized national
rights or that these rights have played any part in its history, is
to play with the powers of public credulity. Always the first duty
of a state has been its safety; the pledge of its safety, its
power; and the limits of its power, that intelligence of which each
has been made the depository. When the great powers have proclaimed
any other principle, it has been only for their own purposes, and
the smaller powers have never received any benefit from it.

Each state claims the right to control interests
foreign to itself when those interests are such that it can control
them without putting its own interests in danger. ... other powers
only recognize this right of intervening in proportion as the
country doing it has the power to do it.

Attributed

A good sketch is better than a long speech. (A picture is worth a
thousand words.)

Morality has nothing to do with such a man as I
am.

As quoted in The Story of World Progress (1922) by
Willis Mason West, p. 433

Waterloo will wipe out the memory of my forty victories; but
that which nothing can wipe out is my Civil Code. That will live forever.

As quoted in The Story of World Progress (1922) by
Willis Mason West, p. 437

Un bon croquis vaut mieux qu'un long discours.

A good sketch is better than a long speech.

Quoted in L'Arche de Noé (1968) by Marie-Madeleine
Fourcade, p. 48; this has sometimes also been translated as
"A
picture is worth a thousand words", though it is not
known to be the origin of that English expression.

I saw myself founding a religion, marching into Asia riding an
elephant, a turban on my head and in my hand the new Koran that I would have
composed to suit my needs.

As quoted in The British in Egypt‎ (1971) by Peter
Mansfield, p. 1

Ability is nothing without opportunity.

As quoted in Have You Ever Noticed? : The Wit and
Irony of Every Day Life (1985) by Joe Moore

The hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Money has no
motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency;
their sole object is gain.

This is often quoted as a command Napoleon issued when
dispersing mobs marching on the National Assembly in Paris (5
October 1795), or it is occasionally stated that he boasted "I gave
them a whiff of grapeshot" sometime afterwards, but the first known
use of the term "whiff of grapeshot" is actually by Thomas Carlyle in
his work The French Revolution (1837), describing the use
of cannon salvo [salve de canons] against crowds, and not
even the use of them by Napoleon.

A constitution should be short and obscure.

Quoted in The Life of Napoleon I by John Holland Rose
as an exchange between Roederer and Talleyrand

Roederer tells us ("Œuvres," vol. iii., p. 428) that he had
drawn up two plans of a constitution for the Cisalpine; the one
very short and leaving much to the President, the other precise and
detailed. He told Talleyrand to advise Bonaparte to adopt the
former as it was "short and" — he was about to add
"clear" when the diplomatist cut him short with the words,
"Yes: short and obscure!"

Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by
stupidity.

Often known as Hanlon's razor, this was
attributed to Napoleon without source in Message Passing Server
Internals (2003) by Bill Blunden, p. 15, ISBN
0071416382

Quotes
about Napoleon

Arranged alphabetically by author

Bonaparte robs a nation of its independence: deposed as
emperor, he is sent into exile, where the world’s anxiety still
does not think him safely enough imprisoned, guarded by the
Ocean. He dies: the news proclaimed on the door of the
palace in front of which the conqueror had announced so many
funerals, neither detains nor astonishes the passer-by: what have
the citizens to mourn?Washington's Republic lives on;
Bonaparte’s empire is destroyed. Washington and Bonaparte
emerged from the womb of democracy: both of them born to liberty,
the former remained faithful to her, the latter betrayed
her.

In early life he may have been a sincere republican; but he
hated anarchy and disorder, and, before his campaign in Italy was
over, he had begun to plan to make himself ruler of France.
He worked systematically to transform the people's earlier
ardor for liberty into a passion for military glory and
plunder.

In France, Napoleon brought about the only conditions under
which free competition could develop, partitioned lands be
exploited, the nation's unshackled powers of industrial production
be put to use. Beyond the French frontier, he drove before him the
establishments of feudalism in order to furnish on the European
continent surroundings fit for the age, and for the bourgeois
social system of France. Once the new social establishment
was afoot, the antediluvian giant vanished..."

From LoveToKnow 1911

NAPOLEON, a round game of cards (known
colloquially as "Nap"). Any number
may play. The cards rank as at whist, and five are dealt to each player. The
deal being completed, the player to the dealer's left looks at his
hand and declares how many tricks he would play to win against all
the rest, the usual rule being that more than one must be declared;
in default of declaring he
says "I pass," and the next player has a similar option of either declaring to make more tricks
or passing, and so on all round. A declaration of five
tricks is called "going Nap." The player who declares to make most
has to try to make them, and the others, but without consultation,
to prevent him. The declaring hand has the first lead, and the first card he leads makes the trump suit. The players, in
rotation, must follow suit if able. If the declarer succeeds in
making at least the number of tricks he stood for he wins whatever
stakes are played for; if not he loses. If the player declaring Nap
wins he receives double stakes all round; if he loses he only pays
single stakes all round. Sometimes, however, a player is allowed to
go "Wellington" over
"Nap," and even "Blucher" over "Wellington." In these cases the
caller of "Wellington" wins four times the stake and loses twice
the stake, the caller of "Blucher" receives six times and loses
three times the stake. Sometimes a player is allowed to declare
misere, i.e. no tricks. This ranks, as a declaration,
between three and four, but the player pays a double stake on
three, if he wins a trick, and
receives a single on three if he takes none.